


Vibrations

by SilverNight88



Series: Marvel One-Shots [3]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotions, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 22:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12241509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverNight88/pseuds/SilverNight88
Summary: Marvel One-Shots is a series of stories in the Marvel universe. Each is a separate story and may be one or more chapters.Rictor has a unexpected visitor and his feelings about it are hard to contain, and Quicksilver tries to repair the damage he did in the past.(This takes place just after The Children's Crusade comic where Rictor gets his powers back from Wanda.)





	Vibrations

** Vibrations **

 

Rictor stood on a mountain; he was barefoot and only wearing jeans a t-shirt and a leather jacket. He had come here today; out away from the city into nature to stand here and feel the vibrations. After having his powers lost for so long he couldn’t wait to feel again.

Shatterstar wanted to come with him but he had asked for some privacy, away from X-Factor. Now he crouched down and moved his boots and socks off to the side so that his hands could touch the mountain. The wind lifted his hair and brought with it the smell of trees and forest. Here in the wild the sound of the animals was distant and muted as the sound of the mountain came up to greet him.

The rumbling feeling that made it feel like his bones were shaking flowed through him as he lifted his face to the warm sun. His brown eyes had being watering as he tried not to break down. He couldn’t help himself, the tears came slow at first then faster and his emotions began to flow out of him until the entire mountain shook. The startled animals made their unhappiness known as the trees filled with wolf howls and birds screeching.

His smile almost cracked his face and he couldn’t believe it after having thought for so long that his mutant born abilities were gone forever that he was here making the very earth beneath his feet move. He slowed down and just sat there for the longest time, not wanting to go back to the city with its concrete covered streets and problems.

Julio had stopped the vibrations a long time ago but kept his link to the earth and so he felt it when a new vibration shook the ground.

He concentrated.

The movement was fast.

Very fast.

It caused small ripples in the ground and Rictor’s heart beat faster.

He knew those vibrations.

Quicksilver.

No sooner than the mutants name crossed his mind then there he was standing in front of him almost as if thinking his name was what brought him here to this lonely mountain.  Rictor didn’t say anything he slowly stood regretting the loss of contact with the earth from his hands but still keeping his toes dug into the dirt and grass. He slowly looked Quicksilver up and down.

Pietro was tall and lean with pale white skin and Rictor always thought that he should have been a dancer; his long legs would have worked out for the ballet. Pietro wore a green version of his suit, the lightning bolt across his chest shimmered in the sunlight almost seeming to move. His face was guarded and his pale pink lips were pressed into a thin line. Arms crossed against his chest and his light blue eyes were examining Rictor as well. Pietro pale white hair shone in the sun and for a moment he looked just as he did all those years ago, in the pictures Rictor saw about his time being an Avenger alongside his sister Wanda. But a closer look showed that this wasn’t the same young hero. No. This was the man who caused M Day. Who was the reason Rictor didn’t have his powers for so long, who had caused him pain and who was responsible for so much. The anger that Rictor swore he would let go of rushed back into him and though he didn’t mean to he made the earth shake for a few moments as he gritted his teeth and glared at the white haired speedster. Why had he come here?

*****

Pietro had found the mutant he was searching for; he had been trying for weeks to get a private talk with Rictor but wasn’t brave enough to call him or stop by X-Factor. So when he learned that there was an earthquake in an area that never had them before he understood that Rictor had come here. He had rushed here to find him but now what could he say? Instead if greeting him Pietro looked at him and took in Julio’s appearance, it was better than he had remembered. The brown hair that Pietro had once inched to run his fingers through, so rich in color. The chocolate warm eyes that looked at him in disgust now, how Pietro had wanted to wake up next to those eyes, how he had wanted to see the desire in them. He remembered Julio when he was working in his clinic in Mutant Town, he wanted to protect him, to give him something that would make Julio see him and maybe even want to be with him. He tried, oh how he tried to undo what he caused, what Wanda caused, but it would seem that as always he failed and Wanda succeeded without him.

“What are you doing here Pietro?”

Julio’s voice was cold but Pietro felt the tremors of the mountain under his feet.

“I came to see you.”

“Why? And how did you know I was here? I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.”

“I’m a speedster Rictor.” Pietro wanted to say his real name to hear the sound of Julio roll off his tongue but he was afraid. “I felt the vibrations.”

“Lair.”

Pietro raised an eyebrow.

“Unless you were following me there is no way you could have felt them. I didn’t make them that big.”

Pietro looked away. Why did he have to lie? Now Rictor would never want to hear him.

“I’m going to ask you one more time before I cause an earthquake and push you off this mountain. Why did you come here?”

Pietro ran his hand through his white hair and looked up nervously.

“I wanted… you. To see you, to make sure you were… better.”

“Is that the fake doctor in you? As you can see Wanda made me better. She gave me back my powers. Unlike you.”

Pietro looked down so that he stared at Rictor’s feet and tried not to let the feelings of being a complete loser overwhelm him.

“Then I suppose my trip was wasted. I hope that you are happy now Rictor-”

“My name is Julio. Why don’t you use it?”

“I didn’t think you would want me to.”

“Why?”

“Secret code names and-”

“Cut the shit Pietro. You have lied to me in the past. About the crystals, about yourself. I’m not doing that again. You better tell me what you want-”

“I want you.”

*****

Julio was shocked. He put down his hands; he had been seconds away from creating a big earthquake that would have toppled Pietro all the way down the mountain. He had remembered Pietro weird fixation on him, how he had wanted to protect him and how he felt about the speedster. Now it seemed like Pietro had wanted something more between them.

“You want me? Me? How? As a friend? A boyfriend? How could you do what you did and ask that of me?”

“I wanted to see if we could make a clean start. Wipe away the past and try to see if there was something more between us.”

“Just act like the past never happened huh? Just forget all the bad now that it seems like everything is ok. How can you ask for my love, for my affection when you haven’t even asked for my forgiveness?”

Pietro shifted on his feet. He tried before to fix things but he had never apologized. Rictor watched as the emotions ran over Pietro’s face. The man looked hopeful, then angry, then sad.

Pietro took a deep breath and then sat down on the ground as if he couldn’t stand and face Rictor anymore. His back was to the newly restored mutant and so Rictor didn’t see him try to speak again. Opening and closing his mouth unable to say the words.

He only saw a mutant, a man who was trying to open up to him. He wanted to stay angry but he couldn’t. Instead he moved until he sat down next to Pietro and finally after a little while of silence Pietro said without looking at him, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for… for everything.”

Rictor didn’t speak; instead he listened to the vibrations.

The vibrations that the mountain made as it moved beneath him, he listened to the vibrations that the speedster who sat next to him made. He gave off a low seismic energy that would make Rictor feel as though he was constantly vibrating on a different frequency.

Then Pietro spoke and it seemed as though he had been holding things in for so long that they finally came spilling out like rushing water.

“I’m sorry, I tried to make things right. I did. But it’s like my father always said I’m just a failure. I tried to make up for it but sometimes I don’t think things through. I’m not Captain America who knows what is good and right all the time. Sometimes what seems right to me is just so wrong. I thought that the crystals would help. I hurt you. I’m sorry and-”

“Stop talking.”

Pietro shut up.

Rictor looked at Pietro; he realized that the two of them had been through so much.

“They were going to kill her.” Julio said. He remembered what set off M-Day. Everyone knew that Wada had gone crazy and that the heroes were going to kill her. He couldn’t blame a man who was trying to protect his family. Julio knew what it means to have a family to want to shield them from the world.

Pietro’s blue eyes watered up but the tears didn’t spill down his cheeks. Rictor went on in a gentle tone that stated the truth.

“They were going to kill her and you couldn’t live without her and so you tried to make people happy. You weren’t supposed to do that. You are not a god Pietro, neither is Wanda. You played with people’s lives and because of you so many were hurt. Then you tried to make it all ok but you hurt even more people. You did hurt me. Wanda did make up what she did to me and I have forgiven her. So I suppose if I could forgive one twin, then why not the other?”

He gave a small smile then Rictor reached over and pushed a windswept lock of white hair away from Pietro’s face. His hand lingered there on the speedster’s cheek. Rictor remembered his old feelings and his thoughts of how it would feel to kiss this man.

He leaned over and brushed his firm lips against Pietro’s just a brush… barely a kiss. When he pulled back Pietro had closed his eyes. He opened them slowly and said, “I want you Rictor.”

“You wanted me but you can’t have me. I made a commitment to Shattterstar.”

“You could leave him and run away with me.”

“That is your answer for everything. To run, one day Pietro you will need to stop running and face the demons that are chasing you.”

“I’m afraid.”

“I know.”

“You are strong Rictor, inside you are strong. You didn’t let not having powers stop you. I almost killed myself then I was weak and stole from Crystal’s family. I hurt so many people. I wanted to be a hero again.”

Rictor sighed and looked deeply into Pietro eyes, warm brown met the ice blue and the mutant confessed, “I’m not. I’m not as strong as you think. I had my low moments too, but you have to remember Pietro that no matter what happens you can survive.”

“Did you ever like me? Or was it all just in my head. It was so hard sometimes to think straight, the crystals made it difficult.”

Pietro’s yearning voice almost made Rictor want to lie to him but he didn’t he just told the truth.

“There was a moment or two where… if things were different maybe I would have wanted to see where this could have gone.”

“Then the moment was gone.”

“Yes.”

Pietro pulled away and Julio could see that the man was beginning to close himself off again but before he could let that happen he pulled in the speedster and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around the man and squeezed just tight enough to make him startled into giving him hug back.

*****

Pietro was confused, first a soft kiss then words saying that Julio wouldn’t be with him and now a hug. The sun shining on Julio’s dusky skin made Pietro want to touch him so he hugged the mutant back burying his nose into Julio’s hair and breathing in the man’s earth rich scent.

For a while the two men just held each other; one forgiving the other and one desperate for affection. Later as Quicksilver ran away from Rictor using his super speed to carry him down the mountain he felt the vibrations under his feet.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this short story a while ago because I felt like Julio and Pietro never resolved what was between them in X-Factor and everything that happened in Mutant Town. I wanted them to both be happy and move on. It was my first time writing for Rictor so I hope I didnt write him too bad. I decided to add it to my Marvel One-Shots. As always I love comments and kudos and thanks for reading!


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